“That’s right.”
“You’d educate her, of course.”
Bertha said, “I probably won’t have anything to do with it.”
“Maybe the insurance company would like to buy my notebook.”
“Perhaps it would. Why don’t you try it?”
“I may at that.”
“You probably have.”
“No. I’m strictly on the up-and-up. I wouldn’t alter my testimony for anyone. That’s why I didn’t go to this girl direct and get a cut from her. Some lawyer would smoke out what I’d done and raise the devil with me. But some private, confidential arrangement with you would be different. Then when some mouthpiece asks me if the plaintiff has offered to pay me anything, I’d just look wise and say, ‘The usual witness fees is all.’ ”
Bertha laughed cynically. “Twenty-five dollars,” she announced, “is the limit of what she’ll ask at present, and that’s my limit to you. I’ll take that much of a gamble.”
“Twenty-five percent,” he insisted.